HATTIESBURG — If there was ever a week for Southern Miss to break out of its early-season rushing woes, this would be it.

Southern Miss (1-1, 0-0 C-USA) plays its Conference USA opener on Saturday, hosting the Rice Owls. At 1-2 with losses against Houston and Hawaii, Rice has sputtered through the first three weeks of the season with one of the worst scoring defenses in the FBS. The Owls are allowing 38.7 points per game, good for 117th out of 130 FBS teams, and that number jumps to 44 points per game if you only include games against FBS opponents.

One root of Rice's defensive struggles? The Owls have let opponents run wild. Opposing teams are averaging 6.01 yards per carry against Rice this season, with Houston terrorizing Rice for 7.14 yards per carry and three touchdowns on 36 attempts. No team, not even Prairie View A&M, has averaged fewer than 5.0 yards per carry against Rice in 2018.

Enter Southern Miss. For as bad as Rice has been defensively, Southern Miss has been equally bad rushing. The Golden Eagles have averaged 3.29 yards per carry this season, the 118th best total in the FBS, with just one rushing touchdown. It's a narrative that's been beat into the ground in the two weeks since Southern Miss' loss to UL-Monroe, but USM plans to make changes to its rushing personnel moving forward, expanding the roles of freshman running backs Steven Anderson and Trivenskey Mosley.

Still, a matchup against a team like Rice could be exactly what an ailing Southern Miss rushing attack could need to break out of its funk. Nowhere is this more evident than in big-play reputation. Southern Miss is one of just seven FBS teams without a rush of at least 20 yards this season, and ranks 118th in number of rushes of at least 10 yards.

Then there's Rice's defense. In three games in 2018, Rice has allowed seven plays of 20+ rushing yards and 19 plays of 10+ rushing yards. Of those plus plays, four went for at least 30 yards and three logged at least 40 yards. No team in Conference USA and only four teams in the FBS have allowed as many 40+ yard rushes as Rice.

And it's not as if Rice's big-play pass defense is much better. The Owls have allowed nine pass plays that went at least 30 yards. Only Houston has allowed more, and Houston is coming off back-to-back weeks of playing against Air Raid opponents in Arizona and Texas Tech.

Southern Miss' offense has converted just two pass plays that went 30 or more yards this season, but the Golden Eagles have converted 28 chunk plays through the air, gaining at least 10 yards through the air a whopping 14 times per game. Among Conference USA teams, only North Texas executes more 10-yard pass plays per game than Southern Miss.

For USM to jump out to a 1-0 start in C-USA play, the Golden Eagles are going to have to take advantage of Rice's defensive shortcomings. If Southern Miss can't find a way to run the ball against a defense as porous as Rice's, this problem might be bigger than previously thought. But if the Golden Eagles can establish a balanced rushing game on top of their consistently productive passing attack, that should be enough to lead USM toward a successful start in conference play.

SERIES, LAST MEETING: Rice and USM are tied 4-4. Southern Miss won last season 43-34.

KICKOFF WEATHER: 80 degrees with a 40 percent chance of scattered thunderstorms and 71 percent humidity. Wind will be blowing south southeast at 6 mph.

WHAT TO WATCH: Both Rice and Southern Miss are opening up conference play on Saturday in a matchup between two stout teams in the Western division. Southern Miss will enter into a new era at the skill positions, with senior quarterback Kwadra Griggs returning from his month-long suspension and expected to play a few snaps behind starter Jack Abraham and senior running back T'Rod Daniels' transfer clearing the way for freshmen Steven Anderson and Trivenskey Mosley to earn a few carries. Southern Miss' defense has been strong to start the season and will have to contend with a persistent Rice rushing offense that has averaged more than 200 yards per game in 2018.